For this, all, I have two alternative suggestions:
Either: Make C-e M-RET consistently make a new heading below the
current one - regardless of folding and leaving any text associated
with the current heading alone. But this may be difficult, considering
that folding seems to be a bit troublesome at times.
Or, simply: Add a new command which creates a new heading after the
current one, regardless where the point is on the line, at the same
level the current heading is. This command could work also in the text
part of headings, like lists - always creating headings, unlike
M-RET. Prefix argument on this command could create the heading before
the current one, though I'm not sure if it would be terribly useful. A
variation, creating a subheading (one level deeper) of the current
item could be useful, but since that can be achieved with the former
by just pressing M-right after the command, I don't think this one is
too useful either.